Here Are the New Anti-LGBTQ Bills Texas Passed into Law

Johnathan Gooch did a lot of wishful thinking throughout this legislative session Most of in recent days he s been wishing for soundproof walls The worst thing about being queer in Texas right now is having neighbors because I just want to scream all the time revealed Gooch the communications director for Equality Texas an LGBTQ rights advocacy group This session the group identified and tracked over anti-LGTBQ bills more than any other state in any point in history Gooch announced A dozen of those bills were ultimately passed by the Legislature and have made it to Governor Greg Abbott s desk or already been signed into law Those various bills could threaten to negatively impact queer Texans with restrictions targeting inhabitants schools and healthcare and new legal standards that could create unsafe environments for LGBTQ people particularly children Though the deluge of anti-LGBTQ decree isn t anything new in legislators filed such bills Gooch reported that this session the bills that gained the greater part traction tended to seem less overtly harmful The harmful provisions are sometimes buried in other bills or deal with complicated guidelines areas that might not be directly evident to queer people or allies across the state who are concerned about what s going on Gooch declared One such bill is Senate Bill which will require insurance providers to cover any adverse consequences relating to gender-affirming healthcare including procedures to reverse or recover from a gender transition These procedures are uncommon According to a review about percent of trans people regret gender-affirming surgeries The bill may cause risk-averse soundness insurers to stop covering gender-affirming healthcare Gooch noted making it more laborious for adults to access or afford Abbott signed SB into law on May and it will go into effect on September This bill follows the state s ban on gender-affirming care for minors Other bills like House Bill enact seemingly innocuous changes in legal language that could have devastating impacts HB amends the Texas family code s definition of child abuse to explicitly exclude a parent who refuses to affirm a child s gender identify or sexual orientation This exception unfortunately could enable a lot of harmful behavior Gooch revealed There s a long history of using a variety of violent physically abusive tactics to change young queer people If a parent is so aggressively opposed to their child s orientation or gender identity where is the limit What are they allowed to do to force them not to be queer Senate Bill which the governor signed on May similarly tweaks language removing a legal protection that previously exempted parents teachers and librarians from prosecution for providing kids with material that could be considered harmful if it was done with an educational intent Emily Witt a communications strategist for the Texas Freedom Architecture stated bills that put more power in the hands of parents are part of a larger project of weaponizing parental rights Parents love their kids and want what s best for their kids and if they re being reported that there is this harmful agenda or that there is something wrong with their kid being trans or LGBTQ I think that parents are a lot more likely to go along with that This weaponization extends into schools particularly with Senate Bill and Senate Bill two of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick s priority bills Witt commented going after society schools is the first way to change the overall mindset of a population It has to do with how foundational our schools are Witt reported Making our masses schools places where kids can t be fully accepted or don t feel like they can talk to their teachers or be who they are is just another piece of how Republicans are attacking our citizens tuition system and changing it from what it s supposed to do which is serve our kids Senate Bill dubbed the parental bill of rights would prohibit teachers from teaching LGBTQ topics and from helping students socially transition by using a name or pronouns that don t align with their biological sex The final version which passed over the weekend also clarifies that school districts may not authorize or sponsor clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity It also allows parents to have access to their child s mental wellbeing records which Gooch of Equality Texas revealed could pose serious risks to queer children If a young queer person fears that their parents might not be affirming they need an outlet to process that Gooch noted Having access to counselors at school can be a lifeline to young queer people who are trying to make sense of how they fit in the world and also trying to maintain a healthy relationship with their parents SB would allow parents to access scholar library records and prevent their children from checking out certain books It would also establish procedures to remove books with indecent or profane content According to PEN America of the the greater part commonly banned books in the - school year percent featured LGBTQ people and characters SB was approved by both chambers over the weekend House Bill one of several proposed bills seeking to classify people along binary definitions of biological sex would codify the terms male and female and require cabinet agencies to abide by these definitions in sex-based figures collection Witt mentioned this bill could pose problems for trans Texans whose gender identity does not align with their biological sex and intersex Texans who do not fit into binary definitions of biological sex That s just another way that we re seeing lawmakers try to erase Texans and try to really attack freedoms Witt explained They re trying to control every aspect of trans and queer Texans lives This kind of measure really just feels like a way to push people out of the state and make them feel like they don t belong here Senate Bill similarly relies on the idea of biological sex requiring strength agencies to create a new field in diagnostic records for sex assigned at birth It doesn t however prohibit fitness agencies from including gender identity information Still the majority of anti-LGBTQ bills died during the legislative process including Senate Bill one of Patrick s priorities which made it to the House calendar but didn t get a reading before the May deadline SB would have prohibited constituents libraries from hosting drag queen storytime events and Senate Bill which would have classified gender-affirming hormone cure as prohibited steroid use for athletic competitions in the University Interscholastic League met the same fate Though not much about the session surprised Witt she revealed the amount of anti-LGBTQ bills was to be expected she reported lawmakers seemed less interested in listening to the testimony of Texans during hearings I think they are aware that they re wasting time attacking a small region instead of passing meaningful rule that in fact affects greater part Texans Witt stated They just think that they re in charge and they don t have to listen to the community anymore and I think that they re going to see that that s a big mistake when it comes vote time Despite the onslaught of bad bills Texans continued to show up even at the end of the session Witt mentioned over people came to a read-in protest of SB over Memorial Day weekend This is a minority of people who are extremists and have been given millions of dollars to push forth this anti-trans regulation but they don t certainly reflect Texas Witt declared We still have so a multitude of people who are willing to show up for each other and keep each other safe and I saw that throughout the entire session The post Here Are the New Anti-LGBTQ Bills Texas Passed into Law appeared first on The Texas Observer